HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN PCHSW 2023/01/05 (2022-2024) Policy Committee on
Health, Safety, and Well-being
lst Session
Hawaii County Building
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawaii
January 5, 2023
CALL TO The regular meeting of the Policy Committee on Health, Safety, and
ORDER: Well-being was called to order at 10:52 a.m., in the Council Chambers,
Hilo, by Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Chair.
ROLL CALL:
Present: Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Chair
Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Vice Chair
Ms. Cindy Evans, Member
Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member
Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member
Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member
Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member(came in later)
Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member
Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member
STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business,
FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items.
PUBLIC ON
AGENDA ITEMS: The following individual registered to speak and came forward when
called by the Chair:
Colonel Deb Lewis: Bill 8 (Comm. 29); in support.
(representing the
Veterans Advisory Committee)
CHR KAGIWADA: Thank you so much.
MS. LEE LOY: Chair,just a simple request. If we could take Bill 8 out of order,
and then take on the rest of them?
Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council Members, the
of Business: following item was taken out of order:
BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business,
ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances.
PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
Bill 8: AMENDS CHAPTER 15, ARTICLE 7, SECTION 15-62, OF THE HAWAII
COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO
THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE VETERANS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Removes the Disabled American Veterans' representative and increases at-large
membership from seven to eight members.
Reference: Comm. 29
Intr. by: Ms. Lee Loy
Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend passage of Bill 8 on
first reading. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Lee Loy, do you want to speak to this
item?
MS. LEE LOY: Sure. I think Colonel Deb Lewis summed it up perfectly.
We're just moving language in what's being requested by the organization, so
they can continue the good work for our veterans. I ask for my colleagues'
support.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright. Any other discussion? Go ahead, Council
Member Evans.
MS. EVANS: Thank you. So I noticed the Disabled American Veterans, we're
striking that, and I know it's very, very hard for them in terms of, they're aging
and they have to pick them up by vehicles or whatever it was. Was there a
specific reason why we removed them?
MS. LEE LOY: Chair, if I might speak to that? This was at the request of their
national organization. There's some connection between the national umbrella
and the local umbrella. And so, our local umbrella is being asked to be removed
from this committee so that they can sort out some language to connect them to
their national umbrella. At some point they might come back, but for right now,
there's a disconnect between that national umbrella and the local one.
MS. EVANS: Does the local umbrella, the commanders or whatever, I don't
know their rank and file correct name for them, do they agree with this? I mean,
the national may say it but what does the local say?
(Note: At this time, Colonel Deb Lewis, came forward to address the
members of the Committee.)
MS. LEWIS: If I may? When these assignments were given to this committee,
these were organizations that had vibrant groups. The 100'h Battalion, Korean
War Veterans and DAV (Disabled American Veterans). It's just one of those.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
Yes, we still do have members. None on this side necessarily as active as the
ones on the other side of the island. But this is not to say that we're not
addressing the issues, and members don't have membership in DAV. So, the
interests of all veterans is being taken care of by the members on the committee.
It is not a reflection upon—lack of support to DAV. There's only four now
designated organizations. The American Legion, the VFW (Veterans of Foreign
Wars), and two retirement organizations. One for the National Guard and one
for our island. Those are the only four represented right now. But, the active
members who are on the committee reflect all the interests that you're talking
about and make sure that we support the health and well-being of our veterans.
MS. EVAN: Right. I guess I've worked with the veterans. It's been one of my
passions for the last 20 years, and each organization is very distinct in itself and
they stand alone. To exclude one, I want to make sure we're not offending them
by excluding them.
The other thing is the membership "shall" include instead of"may" include. So,
it's very clear that you've chosen the American Legion. I don't see the Vietnam
War Vets in here, and I don't know why.
MS. LEWIS: Again, that's participation and aging out. That's the issue. We
have the President of the committee is a Vietnam Veteran.
MS. EVANS: Right. That's why I said, but you have Desert Storm. You have
all the different groups. I guess what I'm saying is, we only say "shall" on four
of them.
MS. LEWIS: Yes, but there's probably 20 groups on the island, and just to let
you know is that anyone excluded, if they're not on that list, then they want it—
but
tbut they're not participating, and they haven't. For years, this committee did
nothing. We couldn't even achieve quorum, and now we're able to achieve
quorum so we can actually talk the issues that we're talking about.
The issues you're talking about are a separate matter than we can discuss, you
know, and raise it to our committee as an issue for any constituents that you
have. But those are handled in a different format. They're raised in the
committee, but excluding not having them on this list was directed by that
organization because of their way that they've decided. But the other ones came
off because there was no member that would even attend the meeting, and so,
we've removed eight.
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CHR KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you so much. Council Member Evans, did
your question get answered?
MS. EVANS: Well, I just have concerns of the "shall" and including only four
when there's so many others. There's like 25 veteran groups I suspect out there
around the State. Like I said, I've been so involved in this. Just want to make
sure that the other groups don't get offended, but thank you, Chair.
CHR KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. Any other discussion? Yes, Council
Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Just to help, Ms. Evans. This has been a work-in-progress, as
Ms. Lewis described. During our last term, Mr. Inaba and I actually combed
through a lot of the various organizations; sought them out, and this list has
evolved because of attrition and all those things that you speak of. To your
point, Desert Storm, Saudi—at some point, they may want to move in too. This
committee can engage that, and we can live and breathe around this organization.
But as Colonel Lewis described, there was a time period where they could not
meet because we just didn't have the representation to form the quorum.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright. Thank you, Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. EVANS: Chair, can I have a follow-up?
CHR KAGIWADA: Yes, go ahead.
MS. EVANS: So, if you add another person, then you're going to have trouble
with quorum even more. I mean, you add one more person from seven to eight.
Doesn't your quorum number change?
CHR KAGIWADA: Ms. Lee Loy, do you want to respond?
MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, and again, we're doing this work based on the
recommendations of the commission. This is all being fueled by them. This is
what they're asking us to do. So, what's being presented here has been elevated
by the commission itself. So whatever number, they're confident they can get to
it. They can get to the quorum issues. They can have the discussions.
MS. EVANS: Alright, good. Thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright. Thank you, both. Any further discussion?
Chair Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Yeah,just to clarify. My reading on this is, we are not
changing the overall number of members, we're just removing the requirement
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that one be representative of the DAV, and then adding that one as an at-large.
So, the total number of membership will remain the same. We're just shifting
from an assigned membership to an at-large position.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright. Any other further discussion? Questions? Aright
seeing none, could we take a vote on this please? All those in favor please say
Ic aye.
Vote on Bill 8: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 8 on first
(Approved) reading was carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kagiwada—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright. Thank you so much. Clerk, can you please read
in Bill 239, at this point?
Return to Order The Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business.
of Business:
Bill 239: AMENDS CHAPTER 15, ARTICLE 1 AND ARTICLE 2, DIVISION 1 AND
(2020-2022) DIVISION 2, OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS
AMENDED), RELATING TO THE OPERATION OF PARKS AND
RECREATIONAL AREAS
Sets hours of operation for all parks, beach parks, cemeteries, and recreation
facilities, and amends provisions for prohibited activities in park areas.
Reference: Comm. 1085
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R)
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend passage of Bill 239 on first
reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR KAGIWADA: It looks like we have our Director of Parks and Rec. and
our Deputy Director here as well. So, if you would like to kick us off and tell us
kind of what is the impetus behind this? I know you have several bills today, so
let's try to stick to this bill right now and then we'll move along, thank you.
(Note: At this time, Director of Parks and Recreation Maurice "Mo"
Messina and Deputy Director Michelle Hiraishi, came forward to address
the members of the Committee.)
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MR. MESSINA: Thanks Chair. Maurice Messina, Director of Parks and
Recreation. One of the charges that when we first came in was looking at all of
our facilities and trying to get some type of order and trying to clean up language
in Chapter 15, which basically codifies all of our rules and regulations in the
Parks and Rec. Department.
We had some facilities open up at 6:00, some open up at 7:00, some close at
10:00, some close at 9:00. Ms. Lee Loy has brought this up to us before as well.
So couple provisions are, number one, we set up some definitions, so that there's
no more questions about exactly what something means. Especially, like if
we're trespassing someone or there's a police investigation in one of our parks,
and just real quick, Officer Lewis is in the background here, and he's been
working with us over the years as well to make sure we get these bills through.
One of the biggest things that we have on here is the opening time of 7:00 a.m.
and the closing time of 8:00 p.m. of our park facilities. This is especially
important at our beach parks, and I think everybody here would agree, once it's
dark at our beach parks nothing good happens out there.
We are not able to close every one of our beach parks at 8 o'clock because of the
amount of time it takes for our guys to get through, but having a closing time of
8 o'clock, especially for the parks that we have. Our 31 beach parks across the
island and all of them have gates. So, it really helps the police to monitor and
get people out when there's a call if we've got our set hours.
Now, this doesn't really apply to every recreational facility. For our tennis
courts and the other areas, pavilions that maybe people can rent out at night that
have lights. We'll have specific times set up on signs for those facilities. So,
that's basically what this bill says.
CHR KAGIWADA: Okay, great. Thank you. Deputy, do you have anything
that you want to add at this time?
MS. HIRAISHL No, I do not. Thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Okay, great. Discussion, questions? Council Member
Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thank you, Director and Deputy Director for
advancing this. As he mentioned, this is something I probably pushed on for five
or six years now. But, if I could take a minute, Officer Lewis, who has been
incredibly instrumental with our community policing, to share some of the
concerns that were happening in the past and how that gave rise to what we have
in front of us. Officer Lewis.
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(Note: At this time, Detective Matt Lewis came forward to address the
members of the Committee.)
MR. LEWIS: Good morning, Council and Madam Chair. So, a lot of you I've
seen before over the years. Glad to be back. Some of you are new. So, I'm
currently been reassigned to Kona as a detective, but I'm here to support Parks
and Rec. and Council Member Lee Loy, as we've worked on this for like she
said, over six years,probably on some of this now.
Like Director "Mo" (Maurice) here said, the parks closing at different times
makes it a little difficult for some of the law enforcement. For example, in
Keaukaha, I think there's nine beach parks out of the 30 in one stretch of
roadway. So you have a park closing at 8:00 and the next one closes at 10:00.
There's no fence separating the two parks. So you know, if you say, okay this
park is closed and that park's not, and it's just a blade of grass difference. It's a
little confusing for the public.
To get everybody on the same page, and everybody knows okay, beach parks
close at 8:00. They close at 8:00. Everybody's on that. Now, Richardson's can
close at 8:00 and Onekahakaha at 11:00, and we go down the road some more
and another one's at 9:00. So, it's a little confusing, not only for the enforcement
aspect, but the public use of it, it's just a little—and then we've dug into it and
it's not just the Hilo parks, and not just the beach parks,just the parks across the
island. The more we dug, the more we found, and just kind of organizing it all
so we can all work together and get our jobs done.
CHR KAGIWADA: Great, thank you. Does anybody here have questions or
comments that you would like to share? Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. It would be no surprise, I just wonder how this is going
to affect the Kohanaiki Beach Park?
MR. MESSINA: So, we state in here, "Unless otherwise permitted by the
Director." And so, that's one of the ones that is different, right? I believe they
open up at 5:00 or 5:30 and run until 9:00.
MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, great. I also want to thank the authors of this. It's
something that we've been working on. Well, I've been working with
community policing on at a number of our beach parks, and I think the change in
terminology here, especially the outlining of camping.
We have people currently in tents at Wai`aha Beach Park, squatting, and a lot of
challenges about—community policing has been having a vast number of
challenges about how to enforce, and I'm so grateful they're working so closely
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with the Prosecutor's Office and with you folks to get the proper signage up so
they can enforce the right things. And from what I can see here, this provides all
of the necessary legal language even when it talks about picnicking, and a
vehicle, and what a camping is and those hours.
So, I'm really excited to see this coming forward, and for the support it's going
to provide for the men and women who have to enforce and work with people
that find themselves—sometimes, it's a houseless situation; sometimes it's a
vagrant situation. But ensuring that our County Parks and Rec. facilities remain
safe and healthy areas for the public to enjoy. So thank you for this, I appreciate
it, I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Other comments or questions, Council Members? Chair
Kimball, go ahead.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. Yeah, thank you for everyone who worked
on this and putting it together. I think the consistency is great. That's going to
make it a lot easier for folks, both on our side of the County as well as the public.
I actually have questions about the whole collection bit of this, of seashells, and
corals, and rocks, things like that. Thank you, Council Member Kaneali`i-
Kleinfelder who kind of drew my attention to this. I certainly agree that we
shouldn't be allowing people to gather things for the purpose of sale, but
gathering like a few seashells here and there, and prohibiting that entirely seems
a little bit like over-reach. Can you describe the intention and the rationale
behind that part of the legislation?
MR. MESSINA: So, the section that got taken out, we actually moved it down
to Section 15-28. So we basically consolidated the different languages that we
had.
MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, no, I see that.
MR. MESSINA: So we do allow the taking of, you know, a small amount, as
long as you're not taking it to sell and stuff like that.
CHR KAGIWADA: It's Number(5).
MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, you know, I see that, but it's actually the way I read it,
it's "The following activities are prohibited in all parks, unless authorized by the
Director." And then Number(5) would read, "The gathering or collecting of
seashells, corals, soil, sand, pebbles, cobbles, or rocks of any size." The way I
read that it that it's entirely prohibited. Am I missing a word somewhere?
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MR. MESSINA: Yeah, if you look at Number(3), that's where it talks about the
gathering or collecting basically of all that—that's the reasoning behind this, for
"reasonable quantities for personal use except where such activity is expressly
prohibited."
MS. KIMBALL: Correct. So, (3)prohibits the collection for sale or commercial
use, and (5)prohibits the gathering or collecting of all of these things, entirely.
MR. MESSINA: So, we can go back and look at that one.
MS. KIMBALL: Okay. I think that there's maybe a word missing somewhere
in there. Thank you Chair, I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright. Council Member Evans.
MS. EVANS: Thank you. This is about logistics. So, you said there was 31
parks, which means at the same time, 31 gates are closed?
MR. MESSINA: So, there's 31 beach parks, but we don't have gates at
everyone of our facilities. So, what happens at night whenso, say we're
talking about South Hilo. We have a crew that starts closing all of our parks.
They start at Alae Cemetery and go all the way down and they end at the last
beach park in Keaukaha.
As they're coming down, they're also trying to get the parks ready for the next
day. So say, this is like a Friday night, and so as they're going down, they're
taking out trash. If they come across a bathroom that's covered in blood,
covered in feces or something like that, it's going to hold them up. They're
going to start cleaning that facility. So basically, it's going to put them behind.
So, that's what I was saying about that.
MS. EVANS: Yeah,just the shear number of gates and parks to be closed and
not having the staff to actually do this. So, how often would the police be
called? Would your staff call in the police?
MR. MESSINA: Yes. Especially, like if we have folks—and Officer Lewis can
speak to this, but we have folks that have been drinking, or there's an abandoned
vehicle, or somebody just doesn't want to get out of the water. A lot of times,
they may even skip that one, and say you know, we'll come back to that one
next. Give these guys a chance to get out. But there have been times where
patrons, you know, get verbally and physically abusive with our staff and we do
have to call the police.
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MS. EVANS: So, do we have enough police to support their effort. I mean,
that's an effort, right? Every night we know—so we're triggering this. You
know, my point is, every night now we know, 8 o'clock.
MR. LEWIS: So, the parks are closed anyway, and it's going to be the same
routine. The same park employees that are closing the gates are closing the
gates. It's just getting the times in line. The park employee doesn't have to
jump from this to that one, it can be done all in a row.
We do respond, not only via a call from Parks and Rec., but also calls from the
public. So, if there's a nuisance, something going on in the park; a fight, a party
that's gone late and the park workers, caretakers are still maybe at the cemetery
closing it. We can still respond down to Leleiwi or Richardson's and remove the
people. The park hours are closed, not necessarily the gate being closed, and we
can still enforce those hours given this in the Code.
MS. EVANS: Is there a fine, a penalty, a misdemeanor? What is the
punishment?
MR. LEWIS: So, currently, it is criminalized. It's a criminal citation. You have
to go to court in front of the judge. It's a citation, we'll issue a citation. The
individual or individuals will have to go to court to address that citation. It's a
summons.
MS. EVANS: So, your signs will say that, basically? Penalty, under law, or
something?
MR. MESSINA: No, our signs will say park hours.
MS. EVANS: Okay. I mean a lot of visitors and people come.
MR. MESSINA: So, this is not going to be something that's going to hit
everybody over the head. These have been our park hours since COVID. So,
during COVID restrictions, we turned all of our park hours, from 7:00 a.m. to
8:00 p.m., and I do have the discretion under this chapter to change park hours.
And so, we just kept them the same, because we know that we were going to be
coming up with this bill. So, this is something that's actually been in affect for
over two years now. So, it's nothing new for the public.
MS. EVANS: No, I'm just thinking of consequences.
MR. LEWIS: Later I believe, hopefully, we'll be bringing some legislation
forward to criminalize some of it and making it a fine. So, it wouldn't be tying
up the prosecutors,judiciary,police officers on overtime. So, some of that
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change will come in later bills, I believe of what we've already started working
on.
MS. EVANS: Oh, that's good to hear. I've got one other question on Veterans'
cemeteries. In here, new language, "All County owned or managed cemeteries
inclusive of veterans cemeteries shall open daily at 7:00 and close at 7:00."
When there's gates on cemeteries like the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery, how
do you plan on managing that?
MR. MESSINA: The exact same way we've been managing it already. During
COVID we changed the hours of the cemeteries to this. They have the number
that they can call for the code if they're going to be in there after hours. We can
give them the code, so that when they go in later they can add to it.
But we're also working with the State Veterans Office to see if there's somehow
we can get representation, volunteers, or extra help. Basically, someone
manning those gates for nighttime.
MS. EVANS: Up to 7:00?
MR. MESSINA: Yes.
MS. EVANS: Because your staff is normally done at 3:00?
MR. MESSINA: No, 2:30.
MS. EVAN: Okay, thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright. Thank you, Council Member. Who
else do we have here? Council Member Villegas. Oh, Council
Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder ..
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thanks for bringing this
forward. I think there's some good moves here. Yeah, I had some questions
about the removal of seashells. I can see, you know, one the enforcement of,
and then two, what's right? You know, and removing things from parks, I don't
agree with, but if it's a child collecting five, ten seashells. I mean, I've had
moments in my youth. That's an amazing thing, yeah? So, I don't want to
remove that from our keiki's ability, but I don't want people taking buckets full
of sand. So I kind of understand the need for the law, but also making it
commonsense, and of course, enforceable.
I'm thinking somewhere Parks too, summertime it's light till 8:00, 9:00 p.m., and
the parks close at 8:00. I can see there being some issues, and I'm thinking about
different areas, mostly Keaukaha where you have parks that would close at 8:00,
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but I'm guessing that means the parking lot, because the roadside is still open.
You can still park on the road, but you can't be in the park.
MR. MESSINA: So, Mr. Kleinfelder, we went through so many iterations of
this. At one time, I think we were talking about dusk to dawn. Then how do the
police officers identify what it dusk and dawn?
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm thinking about that too, right now.
MR. MESSINA: So, talking with police, talking with Corporation Counsel, and
prosecutors, it seems like having a set time. The reality is, we don't have a
special button we can push at 8 o'clock and it closes everyone of our parks. So
Keaukaha, it's intentional that Keaukaha or the last beach parks on the island are
the last things to get closed. That gives everybody a chance to get out of the
water, move along. Again, our folks do have the option which they utilize every
single night of saying, " You know what, there's still quite a few people in here.
They're cleaning up, they're closing up, we'll move down to the next one and
give them a shot."
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, I do recognize that. I also recognize,
I think our police are pretty accommodating too, in letting people know, "Hey,
it's time to go. You guys got to go." If not, they're just going to go down and
issue citations. You guys are pretty cool about that. So, the same thing with
parks staff—but I was going there in my head, maybe it is time for some kind of
a button that closes the gates automatically. I know that could be problematic,
but at the same time, I'm thinking about personnel and County time and County
hours for the guys and girls that service all of our places, and trying to make this
more efficient.
Photosensors on gates, you know, imagine that? Automatic lights, automatic
gates. Hey if you're not out, there's a number to call. We'll come let you out,
but you've got to be out by this time, and I would refer to where the sun's at, you
know, it would be interesting.
MR. MESSINA: So, that's actually another issue of ours, right? I mean, we're a
seven-day-a-week operation, and every single night, seven days a week,
somebody is calling who'd been locked into a park. And it all depends on what
we're doing and where are our staff, and what time they are calling, right? If we
still have staff in the area. If our folks are still out there, our park closers; if
they're still in the area we can come get them.
But because we do that, we also get calls on the weekends as well for State
parks. When somebody's locked in the State park. You know, because dispatch
knows that they call us and we help out. So sometimes, they're SOL (simply out
of luck) and sometimes we can go help them out.
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MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think that's perfect. There are signs, you
know. People should be smart enough to take care of themselves when they go
to our parks and facilities. Do our police officers have keys to our facilities?
MR. MESSINA: Yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: They do, so they can let people out if
needed, if park staff wasn't available.
MR. LEWIS: Most of the stations and districts around the County, there's a key
for that district at the station. And a lot of the Community Police Officers that
work with Parks in that area have a key for that section as well. So, they can go
out and assist as well.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good. Okay. I like that you can adjust
things for different parks. I think that's important,because there are going to be
some, like Ms. Villegas mentioned, that should be open later. And overall, I like
the intent. Thank you for bringing this forward again. Thank you for answering
my questions. I yield, Chair.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. I just had a quick question here, as I dug a little deeper.
In Section 15-28, Subsection (4), it talks about, "the destroying, digging, or
removing of any tree, shrub, or other plant,"which is fantastic. But then it says,
"the tying or affixing of ropes, cords, or cables to any plant for the purpose of
mounting or securing signs, tents, tarps, shade or wind screens, hammocks or
similar items." Then it talks about"inserting spikes, nails, screws, or other
foreign objects into any tree or other plant,"which I firmly agree there really
shouldn't be any circumstances.
You know, I guess I have concerns about the enforceability of affixing ropes or
cords. I think of Kohanaiki and the use of pop-up tents, and even camping in a
tent structure, if there's not a stone to tie the cord to, often they get tied off to
trees. Just wondering if there's opportunity for potential language, and once
again it becomes subjective. I'm sure you went round and round with this, but
it's doing things that would harm these trees, right? I myself have told keiki,
hey, be kind to the trees. The Heliotropes break easily and are often damaged by
kids thinking they're, you know, having a battle with a tree. But,just wondering,
just have a little bit of concerns about this language and wondered if you could
help explain.
MR. MESSINA: So, some of our parks, the trees are used by homeless to tie all
their canopies to. That was one of the biggest parts of this. We do have people
setting up hammocks and pulling over some of our trees. We have people that
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
back up their truck and tie their tarps to coconut trees. So, the intent was to try to
stop this as much as we can, but you're right it's all enforceability.
Speaking of Kohanaiki, I mean, they have their own security working there, and
they more or less regulate it themselves.
MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, okay, fantastic. Thank you, I was thinking of all of
those instances that you said and if, once again, this provides enforceability for
the Police Department to utilize under certain circumstances where they deem
it's necessary. I am grateful to once again, give them the tool to be able to do
that. So thank you, with that I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Any other members who haven't spoken yet. Alright.
How do you want to deal with this one issue that was brought up?
MR. MESSINA: So what we can do is, before the next reading, we can submit
an amended bill.
CHR KAGIWADA: You can submit it. Okay.
MS. KIMBALL: Chair, if I may? I'm fine with passing this forward to Council.
I think there's just, you know, minor clarification I think needed on that part of
it, and I don't see it as highly substantive, so I'm fine with moving this forward
today and making the amendment with the Parks Department.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright, thank you.
MS. EVANS: I just want to add, the State Legislature, through the Office of
OCCL, Conservation and Coastal Lands. We passed a bill on taking sand from
public beaches. So, you might want to look at that and see how we had to deal
with the fact that people come, and kids put sand in a bucket and walk away. We
had to deal with that and come up with some language, and it might be there.
CHR KAGIWADA: Okay, seeing no further discussion. I'd like to call for a
vote, all those in favor please say "aye."
Vote on Bill 239: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 239 on first
(2020-2022) reading was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kagiwada—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright, Clerk, could you please start us off with Bill 240?
Bill 240: AMENDS CHAPTER 15, ARTICLE 2, DIVISION 1, SECTION 15-26, OF THE
(2020-2022) HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING
TO USE OF VEHICLES AND PARKING RESTRICTIONS AT COUNTY PARKS
AND RECREATIONAL FACILITIES
Clarifies and adds provisions for the parking of vehicles at County parks and
recreational facilities.
Reference: Comm. 1086
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R)
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend passage of Bill 240 on first
reading. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder.
CHR KAGIWADA: Discussion? Or actually, let me turn it over back to the
Director and the Deputy Director to lead us on this one.
MR. MESSINA: Okay, thank you. So, this is correcting a few of our issues that
we have in our parks about unattended vehicles. This is also a preemptive strive
for when we have a lot more electric vehicle charging stations in our parks. For
instance, right now at Pahoa Park, we have an electric vehicle charging station,
and we are constantly having folks come in and park their cars, hook it up then go
to work for the day. So, we already have that on the books for when that happens.
There are some tour companies who will come and have people park in our park
facilities at our beach parks and then they'll pick them up from there and then go
on their tours. So, this will also prevent that. That's a big issue at Gilbert Kahele
Park and at Keaukaha parks. So, that's what this one's about. Vehicles in our
parks should be for active park users, and we also clarify a couple of things as
well.
CHR KAGIWADA: Thank you, Director. Council Members, do we have any
questions or comments? Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, I'll comment. I think he's mentioned it a couple
times. A lot of this is coming out of Keaukaha just because of so many of our
beach parks, and we'll get into it later with some of tourists and bussing. But,
really, asking for my colleagues' support. This is really lacing up and tightening
up and giving our Police Department and our Parks Department the tools they
need to give parks back to local users. I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Thank you. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder ..
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Enforceability, that's
my question. Who's going to enforce this?
MR. MESSINA: Our staff and the Police Department.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you, Chair.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Yes, once again, question about Kohanaiki and potential
exemptions for the parking flexibility there, because we do have external parking
besides just the marked parking stalls. So, wanting to make sure that that is still
a part of Parks.
MR. MESSINA: Yes.
MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Just checking, appreciate it. I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Director, for adding the electric
vehicle component in there, appreciate that. That was part of reasons we made
the amendments we did to the bill. I actually had a question about how this
would work in my district particularly at the Waipi`o lookout and folks parking
there and then walking down the road. What do you anticipate there?
MR. MESSINA: Yeah, I believe the intent of the bill would not affect that,
because they are active park users.
MS. KIMBALL: Although the road is not the park. And if it were, it would be
great because we could regulate it, but a road is a road.
MR. MESSINA: So, well no, that parking lot—the small parking lot to the right
up there, that is for the lookout.
MS. KIMBALL: Right.
MR. MESSINA: And so that's our rangers'job, is to let them know that if they
see them parking there and walking down. Our rangers'job is to say, "No, if
you want to go down there, you've got to park somewhere else. This is strictly
for the lookout."
MS. KIMBALL: Okay, great. Thank you, appreciate it.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Evans.
MS. EVANS: Thank you. I'm just looking at(a)where it says, "No vehicle
shall be driven at, operated upon, or parked within a park or ..." on and on, but
the unintended consequences, you know, people have their one-year-old birthday
parties, and you know, 100 or 200 people. They show up and they'd like to rent
the pavilion at some of the parks, really nice pavilion. But I don't see how they
can park in all the designated the way you've written it. How do we deal with
overflow?
MR. MESSINA: Well, the reality is, it rains on our island and when these guys
park on the grassy areas, they tear it up, and our deposits are small. It's not
going to take care of everything that we need. We want people to not be parking
in the grassy areas as much as possible. Now, if they come in, they apply for a
permit, and part of their permit is, "look we have some overflow parking, and we
would like to use the grassy areas for the overflow parking." That's a discussion
we can have with that person who's asking for the permit.
For the most part, yeah,people are parking in the grassy areas, on the medians.
They're destroying our fields. Even down at Bayfront. Sometimes if you can go
down there and people are actually parked on the soccer fields. And we tell
them, "You've got to get off the soccer fields, there's open spots." Well, there's
no more spots. " Well, you've got to find another place to park, because kids
play on this." When you try to go over those ruts on a zero-turn mower, it's not
good for our park caretakers.
MS. EVANS: So, this law will allow you to call the police to tell them to tow
them away? Can you tow those? Under this, could you tow them out?
MR. MESSINA: Well,just like Officer Lewis was saying earlier, our intent is
not to be arresting and citing everyone. Our intent is to go to them and say,
"Hey, can you move off of there, that's not allowed." And for the most part,
people are compliant. If we run into issues, then yes, we can call the police, but
our intention is not to criminalize this behavior, but give us the tools that we
need to make sure that people are following the rules.
MS. EVANS: Have you ever considered the towing at their own expense if you
park in these areas? Because I know sometimes they put them up at harbors,
right, where they park in bad areas. They put up, "Tow at your own expense."
MR. MESSINA: Yes, Ms. Evans, we don't want to tow a vehicle if it's
somebody that's down at the beach that day, because now they have no way to
get home. What we want to do is, we want to talk with them and tell them that
there is something in the law that say's they can't be there. We would rather—if
it get's to that point, we'll call police. If police determine that we should tow the
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
vehicle, then we'll work with police on that. But our intent is not to just start
towing every vehicle that's not following the law.
MS. EVANS: Okay, thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright. Any other Council Members haven't had a
chance to speak? Alright, seeing none, I'll just say, I'll be supporting this bill,
and I think it's a good one. I'm glad and I'm hoping that it will help in
Keaukaha and other places as well. So with that may I please have a vote, and
all those in favor,please say "aye."
Vote on Bill 240: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 240 on first
(2020-2022) reading was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kagiwada—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR KAGIWADA: Alright.
Bill 241: AMENDS CHAPTER 15, ARTICLE 4, SECTION 15-39, OF THE HAWAII
(2020-2022) COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO
CAMPING AND TRAILER AREAS
Clarifies provisions for the parking of recreational vehicles and camper units at
County beach parks.
Reference: Comm. 1087
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R)
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend passage of Bill 241 on first
reading. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy.
CHR KAGIWADA: Director Messina, please kick us off here?
MR. MESINNA: Okay, thank you. So, we've seen this issue start coming up
now that we've never had before. And that is the amount of recreational
vehicles, RV's that are on our island now. The way this article and section was
first written, it allowed you to have an RV. You could go down to Ho`okena in a
RV, which I don't know how in the heck you could ever do that.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
Mahukona. We're having an issue at Punalu`u right now, because one RV will
take up seven to eight spots at Punalu`u. So, we sat down and we really looked
at it. We said, "Okay, where can we actually fit RV's? Right now, Spencer's
Beach Park, we have four RV slots already set up. We already have signage and
everything going there.
The other one will be Whittington Beach Park. There's enough room, there's
enough area at Whittington Beach Park, and we've already determined the areas
where that needs to be, because we really started running into this problem last
year and the year before where former Council Member Maile David was really
having some issues at Punalu`u Park, and that's why we came up with this.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Members any questions or comments? Council
Member Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you on this one as well, Director. I know it's something
that I've gotten a lot of calls about, too, and I think it's absolutely appropriate.
We're seeing more and more of this sort of broad term of what's camping,
what's allowable, and what's public space and what's not; what's a short-term
vacation rental, what's not?
I would actually have one request for an amendment, which is to actually place a
definition in Chapter 15 of camping units. The terminology is there in the
description of the section, "camping and recreational vehicles or other camping
units." Could we get a definition of that for the next version? Thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Thank you. Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder ..
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. You know, Mo, when
I'm thinking back, I thought somewhere that we had just a straight prohibition on
campers.
MR. MESSINA: The way this was written, in Section 1, all of these areas
allowed RV's.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so prohibited, unless one of these
areas?
MR. MESSINA: Yes.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, that's what I'm thinking about.
Okay, thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Inaba.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
MR. INABA: Yeah, thank you. Just in light of that potential amendment
coming through, in other parts of Chapter 15, it's referred to as "camper units"
not"camping units." So,just as we work through preparing either a new draft or
an amendment for this, we might need to either fix this one, so we're consistent.
There's other sections that are specific to vans on certain locations, as it relates
to camper units. So,just wanted to point that out.
MR. MESSINA: Okay, to me these are pretty simple amendments that we can
have before the next one, very simple I think.
MR. INABA: Definitely, thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Any other Council Members who haven't had a chance to
speak? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor? Go ahead.
MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I would say the same to recreational
vehicles. So, camping and recreational vehicles or other camping units. Unless I
missed it, definition of, might be helpful, because I can see recreational vehicle
going a lot of different ways. Thank you Chair, I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Okay. Yes, Council Member Galimba.
MS. GALIMBA: I'm almost not wanting to bring this up, but you know, it's not
that big of deal, but I just kind of noticed that there's name changes here which I
think are great, and I wondered if there's been discussion about Whittington
Park, because really the placename is Honu`apo. I mean, Whittington was, I'm
sure, an estimable person, but we've kind of moved to where we want to have
more of the placename at least recognized. So, I'm just wondering if, have we
had any discussion of that, do you know of? What kind of process would we
need to go through to do that? I don't want to hold this whole thing up just for
that.
CHR KAGIWADA: You can go ahead and answer very quickly, but yeah,
we'll get back to the topic at hand, but go ahead.
MR. MESSINA: Ms. Galimba, you can put in a resolution to change the name
of the park.
MS. GALIMBA: Okay, and we can just change it all later? Yeah, okay.
Thanks.
CHR KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you. Anybody else? No, okay, let's take a
vote on this. All those in favor?
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
Vote on Bill 241: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 241 on first
(2020-2022) reading was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kagiwada–9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
MR. MESSINA: I'm sorry, I just need to add one more quick thing.
CHR KAGIWADA: Go ahead.
MR. MESSINA: So, Ms. Galimba. Yeah, we will make that change on this one,
because we did make the change, you know, in the park listing. So, that's one
more amendment we'll make on this one. We'll just change that name. Okay,
thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Clerk, go ahead.
Bill 242: AMENDS CHAPTER 15, ARTICLE 8, SECTION 15-68.1, OF THE HAWAII
(2020-2022) COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO
THE PARKS AND RECREATIONAL FACILITY SCHEDULE
Adds and removes parks and cemeteries, consolidates certain parks under a single
park, adds geographical categories of park locations, and adds tax map key parcel
identifiers.
Reference: Comm. 1088
Intr. by: Mr. Inaba(B/R)
Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend passage of Bill 242 on first
reading. Seconded by Ms. Villegas.
CHR KAGIWADA: Director, go ahead.
MR. MESSINA So, this has been in the works since I came in. It's been a long
time, and this is helping us in a few different ways. Number one, it obviously
helps us with enforcement. If we just look at—in Hilo, we got Lincoln Park and
Lincoln Park Tennis Courts. They were never separate in Hawaii County Code,
so it made it very difficult for enforcement of homeless at Lincoln Park Tennis
Courts.
Some of our iterations also this is a drawn down version. At one time, we had
probably about 100 more on here. So, like for instance, if we look at skate parks.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
If we looked at Roots Skatepark in Kohala, we don't necessarily have that taken
out as its own separate park here because it's part of the Kamehameha Park. Ola
Skatepark in Mountainview, same thing.
What we do have here, though, is I think a real good version of our park
facilities. And this is also the last piece of the puzzle that we need to have before
we solidify our parks maintenance plan. Because once we get this through, now
we have the official park listing.
Internally, we have all of the facilities at all of our parks, which is about 300 total
facilities that we're running right now. As far as enforcement, working with
police, prosecutors, and Corporation Counsel; putting the tax map keys in here,
and having just the general park names. The overall park names is the best we
could come up with.
CHR KAGIWADA: Thank you so much. Council Members questions or
comments? Council Member Lee Loy.
MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Director Messina, I hope you can support me on
this. Big mahalo to Peter Sur, who started this all off. Over 300 we had at some
point. So, thank you Peter for all of that hard work.
I actually had a question on Gilbert Kahele Recreational Area. That one was a
little wonky was executive ordered from the State. I don't remember it
actually kind of coming into our park schedule, and is this how we're doing it?
Because normally, and we just did it right, with Billy Kenoi's complex. Does
this take that place? Just asking out loud, because it wasn't there, now it's here,
we're putting it all in.
MR. MESSINA: Right. So, we're now operating under a Special Management
Agreement. The last thing that we have to do is we have to take the park, or
we're working with DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources) right
now to remove the park from the forest reserve. So, it is an actual park. There
are some things that we can't do right now until we get it out of the forest
reserve. We can't do our stargazing. We can't open up our concession. But
under the current agreement, we are allowed to open the park. We're allowed to
run our cabins and our bunk houses. So, we still have that one more component
to go through, but yeah, this is basically the name change. Does that answer
your question?
MS. LEE LOY: It does. Especially the cabins piece, and I guess the way I'm
capturing this, is because it's identified by the TMK (Tax Map Key). That's how
we identify the entire parcel and everything that's included within that TMK.
MR. MESSINA: Right.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
MS. LEE LOY: Okay. Thank you, I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Inaba.
MR. INABA: Thank you. Going back to Council Member Galimba's point
regarding Whittington. In this schedule I see Whittington and Honu`apo. So,
TMK's are there, but I'm just wondering, I know you said you were going to
correct it in the last bill. So, is it applying to just Honu`apo or is it applying to
Whittington, as it's depending on the TMK's here?
MR. MESSINA: Sorry, what page is that on?
MR. INABA: Page 5 and top of Page 6. Yeah, I'm just going back, because I
think you said you said you were going to fix the language.
MR. MESSINA: I need to back and doublecheck with our staff, but right now,
Whittington Beach Park, there are two separate parcels at Whittington Beach
Park. We are leasing one and then the other one is basically a shared-views
agreement, and we have talked with that owner of that parcel about a way to
either lease it from them or buy it outright. So, I think there's a total of three
different tax map keys in that one facilityI'm not 100 percent sure, but, I need
to go get more clarification on that one.
MR. INABA: Yeah, I just wanted to point that out. Because when we do allow
campers at whatever way we're going to term it, it needs to match up on this end.
MR. MESSINA: You're absolutely right.
MR. INABA: Okay, thank you Director. I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Villegas.
MS. VILLEGAS: Yes, thank you so much. Quick question here because this
came up recently as we were navigating something with community policing.
To get a better definition of what's considered La`aloa Park versus Magic Sands
Beach Park. I'm assuming the La`aloa Park is the parking lot and the grass area
across the street. Is that's what considered La`aloa?
MR. MESSINA: No, they're two separate parcels. If you're facing the area,
you've got Magic Sands on the right, Magic Sands Beach Park. La`aloa on the
left hand side. So, that's its own facility. So, if you notice right now, we've got
two different types of construction going own.
We've got the La`aloa Preservation Plan happening at La`aloa, and we've got the
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) construction happening at Magic Sands.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
So, this was actually one of the other things. In fact, I was on the phone with
Sergeant(Frank) Hardy yesterday about this, and he didn't realize that they were
also two separate facilities.
MS. VILLEGAS: Neither did I, got yah.
MR. MESSINA: It'll help with enforcement.
MS. VILLEGAS: Completely. Thank you so much for clarifying that. I have
one more question as it relates to—for starters, congratulations on this list. It's
so great to have a comprehensive list. I know that Val Poindexter was also
working on it when she was here in Council. I can't imagine what it was like to
try to work without one, and what a resource this will be, as you also can align
inventories of which parks have watering fountains, or basketball hoops, or all
those different kinds of things, as we as Council Members to have to
comprehensive list for how we can support the parks in our districts.
One question that I have is about commercial use, and we've had the pleasure of
working together with a lot of the overlapping opportunities and challenges
related to surf schools. I wondered especially as it relates to Kailua Park, and
you have these four facilities here with the State recently providing a permit for
somebody to operate a commercial surf schools there. How does that work in
the park? Do they need to come to you for a permit to access the water through
the park?
MR. MESSINA: We do have a letter that we give to them that allows them to
traverse the park area to get to the water.
MS. VILLEGAS: Traverse in a vehicle?
MR. MESSINA: Just walk, basically. So, if you're talking about Kahalu`u
Beach Park, is that what you're talking about?
MS. VILLEGAS: I'm actually talking about Old Airport now. Kailua Beach
Park.
MR. MESSINA: So that's the same thing, and we do it also with kayak rentals.
We give them permission to traverse the beach to get to the water. But part of
our letter states that no commercial activity can be exchanged in funds or
anything like that. All they can do is, they're allowed to walk across the beach to
start—for their business basically. We've worked it out with DLNR that DLNR
will not give their permit until we at first allow them to go over the beach to get
to the water.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
MS. VILLEGAS: Okay, we can follow-up offline, because I just have some
concerns about a surf school, that I can't imagine them walking from all the way
from the highway across to go get in the water at Old Airport to surf. But we'll
talk about that later.
MR. MESSINA: So, in order to park, they park in the parking area?
MS. VILLEGAS: They're allowed to park in the parking area, then and then
walk across, okay. Interesting. Well, we can follow-up with it later, but all very
helpful as we continue to navigate commercial uses in public spaces, especially
for some of the parks in my district. So, thank you, I yield.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Kierkiewicz.
MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to take a moment to
acknowledge and extend some gratitude to you, Director Messina, and to your
team, and to the many hands that were involved in getting this over the finish
line. It was a major work-in-progress.
One suggestion, as you're working on amendments. Page 8, I think it was at the
request of your department, Director, that we update the William `Billy" Kenoi
Park to District Park. So, if we could just update this schedule to include the
word "District." I really appreciate how all of the assets are organized under
each of the complexes. I think that's a very smart and strategic move.
Just seeing this comprehensive list as a policymaker, and you know, member of
the public,just goes to show how many facilities Parks and Recreation has to
maintain on a daily basis. So, shout out to your hardworking crews. This is
going to be helpful, I think, at budget time, as we think about how we allocate
resources and making sure that you guys have the support that you need to take
care of these spaces that so many of our community members enjoy. Thank you.
MR. MESSINA: Thank you.
CHR KAGIWADA: Anyone else? Oh, go ahead, Council Member Evans.
MS. EVANS: Thank you. Well, now that we have technology, and data
management, and the ability, I just think this is amazing. However, it does build
expectations. For me, now that I know you have identified them, and you now
have a TMK and a name to them, can I contact you and say based on this one,
what in heck is going on what facility and breakdown; CIP (Capital Improvement
Projects), and management? Are you subleasing it or leasing it out? How much
money are you generating from that particular facility? Are you charging?
I mean, in some ways it's kind of building my expectations that now you have it
so nicely identified, that information is to follow.
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
MR. MESSINA: Council Member Evans, you can contact me anytime with any
questions.
MS. EVANS: But it is building my expectations, so thank you.
MR. MESSINA: Oh, that's great.
CHR KAGIWADA: Council Member Kimball.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, and I will reiterate what my colleagues have said
about this was, I'm sure, a very heavy lift. I know that many hands went into
this over the years. I'll just ask everyone to note, how many of these are actually
in District 1? Yeah, and not many in District 8, I know. There is an issue of
fairness there for sure.
Actually, to Council Member Evans' point, would you be amenable maybe at
some later point when we have a little less on the agenda, to have a conversation
about what kind of datapoints we might like as an additional review of this
information. You know, it would be nice to have a database that we could query
instead of going to you just in terms of the conversation we've heard here. How
we have access is it an EA (Environmental Assessment), is it County property?
You know, things like that would be really helpful to know. I'd love to, of
course, see it in a GIS (Geographic Information System) format so I can click on
it. You can expect that from me all the time. I think maybe at some point, we
can have a conversation about datapoints that we as Council Members might like
to have available in an additional database associated with these.
MR. MESSINA: Right. There was a meeting, I think sometime last year with
Council Member Kierkiewicz and Council Member Lee Loy with us, DPW
(Department of Public Works) and DEM (Department of Environmental
Management) where they were showcasing what they used as far as their asset
management tools. That is something that we're also looking at. How do we
develop a good asset management tool? Because one of the other things that
happened while we were doing this is, we went through every single facility, all
300 facilities and identified everything that's wrong at every facility. And then
how do we because we feel that that data is going to be useful for the budget
and for, you know, CII'. It also became quite a bit overwhelming when you
realize how old our facilities are, the aging of our facilities; the decades of
deferred maintenance, and we've got a lot of work to do. Paperwork is one
thing, but actually fixing our facilities is something completely different, and
that's our next charge.
If it wasn't for the millions and millions or dollars that went into ADA
(Americans with Disabilities Act) improvements, I would not knowI would
hate to see the way our facilities look. I mean, you were there, we had to tear
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
down Papa`aloa Gym. That is something that we never ever want to do on my
watch again. We need to fix them. If we're going to tear down a facility, we
need to have a plan in place of how we're going to rebuild that facility before the
first ball hits it.
MS. KIMBALL: Thank you for that, and you know, DPW is a great example.
They have that new dashboard now, which Director Pause mentioned the other
day where we can go and look and see what's being paved; how much they've
done, and what they plan to pave next. It makes it really easy for us to share
information with our colleagues. And just as a sidenote, I did see Governor
Green the other day and reminded him about that$5 million for Papa`aloa, and
he said, "No problem."
MR. MESSINA: I just want to add one more thing. So, we did for there's a
meeting by IT (Information Technology). What our IT needs and this is one of
the things on there, the database, the asset management. We put those as a
priority for our department.
CHR KAGIWADA: Terrific. Any other comments, questions? Alright. I'll
just say, thank you for being here today and for doing all this hard work. I know
it's a lot of coordination with a lot of past Council Members and staff, and all
your staff. We really appreciate it. So, thank you so much. I'll be supporting,
and all those in favor?
MR. HENRICKS: Madam Chair, before you call the vote, I just wanted to
acknowledge for the record, that the title on the agenda for Bill 242 is erroneous.
It actually should be saying, "Relating to the Parks and Recreational Facility
Schedule." I don't think this presents a problem for the proceedings, as no final
decisions were made today, and we'll correct that as we move forward, but I
would defer to Corp. Counsel if that's problematic to move this out of
Committee. Apologize for that error.
CHR KAGIWADA: Okay. Maybe we want Corp. Counsel to just quickly
weigh in and tell us if this is okay to move it out of Committee.
MR. HENRICKS: So to be clear, we used the language, the title of Bill 240
erroneously. The summary is correct in what the bill does, but the title in upper
case is incorrect. If you noticed, we used the same language for Bill 242. It
should read, "Relating to the Parks and Recreational Facility Schedule,"not
"Parking Restrictions." That's the error there on the agenda. The bill is correct.
The notice was not accurate in the title, but I don't know if that's a fatal flaw to
require that it be held over.
CHR KAGIWADA: Thank you Director and Deputy Director. Judge Strance
can we have you quickly weigh in on this before we proceed?
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PCHSW-1 January 5,2023
(Note: At this time, Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Strance came forward
to address the members of the Committee.)
MS. STRANCE: Elizabeth Strance, Corporation Counsel. I think there's
enough information so that the information contained in the agenda is not
misleading. So, it seems to be more of a technical rather than substantive issue.
CHR. KAGIWADA: Okay, thank you so much. Alright. So with that, all those
in favor of passing this with a favorable rating to Council, please say "aye."
Vote on Bill 242: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 242 on first
(2020-2022) reading was carried by the following voice vote:
(Approved)
Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kagiwada—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KAGIWADA: Motion to adjourn?
ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 12:03 p.m., Mr. Inaba moved to adjourn the
MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote:
Ayes: Committee Members Evans, Galimba, Inaba,
Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball,
Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Kagiwada—9.
Noes: None.
Absent: None.
Excused: None.
CHR. KAGIWADA: We are adjourned at 12:03 p.m.
Approved:
9- 6 23
Ms. nn Ka wa , Chair ate)
Policy Committee on Health,
Safety, and Well-being
JK/dt
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